MORE THAN MEETS THE IRE!

A glimpse into the scrutiny of the live-action Transformers movie.

In a recent casual conversation about movies, someone asked for my opinion on the best way to adapt a film from a certain existing source without upsetting the fans of said existing source. I told him the answer was simple; don’t do it at all!

For the right amount of money, a studio can buy the rights for any book, comic or TV show and adapt it into a movie. As the opening credits roll, you will see the important words, Based on a (novel, series, screenplay) by (author, writer, artist). When you see those words, brace yourself. Whatever you loved about the original material…whatever you held dear about the characters…whatever you thought you knew…it all may have been thrown out the window.

Nostalgia is a double-edged sword, and Hollywood gets to feel both sides. I have never witnessed a better example of this than Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg’s latest project (and the “certain existing source” I was asked about); a live-action adaptation of the much-beloved 80’s cartoon, Transformers.

For the unfortunate uninitiated, the Transformers are a race of alien robots who can “transform” into objects such as cars, trucks, planes, stereos, guns and much more. To sum up over twenty years of continuity, there are good Transformers (Autobots, Maximals, etc) and bad Transformers (Decepticons, Predicons, etc), and the good guys have to stop the bad guys from doing the bad things that bad guys do. There. To enjoy the upcoming Transformers film, that’s all you need to know.

Wait. What? There’s more to it than that? If you have spent any time on one of the many Transformers related websites or forums, you’d see that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Of any movie that has been made over the last few years, none has drawn the ire of “fan boys” quite like Transformers . From the choice of director to designs, story and actors, everything regarding the film is being placed under a microscope. For many, the production of Transformers started off on the wrong foot from day one, with the choice of director.

Michael Bay is one of Hollywood’s biggest names. Known for such films as The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys, his specialty is the big-budget, special effects-driven, summer popcorn movie. I like to categorize Bay’s work as Murphy’s Law movies. Murphy’s Law states that “whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.” Take that theory, add a romantic side story, a few explosions and some of the biggest actors in the world, and you have everything you need to make a typical Michael Bay film. It was precisely for those reasons that producer Steven Spielberg thought Bay would fit in perfectly as the director of the Transformers movie. It’s hard to argue with the decision, based on Bay’s track record and expertise, but Bay isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. He has a knack for sacrificing story for the sake of action, and has a tendency to make actors with great ability as believable as B-movie extras. But who’s thinking about depth of story and character when you’re making a movie featuring huge transforming robots? Apparently everyone.

The continuity of the Transformers now goes back over twenty years. Starting out as a Japanese toy line, most of us were introduced by the Transformers cartoon series that began in 1984. One of the most popular cartoons in history, it has spawned numerous other cartoon series, as well as comic books, toys and other products based on the core idea of transforming robots. There has been the occasional wannabe that rode the coattails of the “Robots in Disguise”, such as Go-Bots, but none have lasted as long or held as much of a nostalgia factor as Transformers. With such a long history, there is an abundance of material to draw from when adapting a story for the screen. This can be a benefit and a curse.

There are many different factions of Transformers fans. One such faction are the G1 loyalists. G1 refers to the first generation of Transformers on screen, which are the original 1984 cartoon series and characters. While not the actual first generation of Transformers, these are the first to be introduced to us through the series. To these fans, some might call them purists, the original series is the greatest and the only worth-while section of Transformers history. While it’s hard to argue with the original being the best, fans of every incarnation of the Transformers exist, and most are just as loyal to their versions as the G1 purists are to theirs. Kids now, in 2007, are watching episodes of new Transformers series and have no concept of G1. It would be easy to take the first few episodes of the original series and make them into a script for a two hour movie. The challenge comes in how to introduce the rich history of the Transformers to a whole demographic of people who know nothing about them, without alienating (or boring, for that matter) the existing fans, not just of G1, but of all incarnations.

So, where do we begin? I’ll discuss this and more in Part II.

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the new Transformers movie did not suck. Ive seen it myself in the theaters and it was a great live action adapation of the franchice. if you even bothered to see the website (which you probably didnt because the guy who wrote this stupid aricle is a RETARD) then you would know they actually had people that grew up with transforers as kids help with the movie so they had proper sorce material. So what if it wasnt cartoony and inmature this was transformers in the real world with real people and they even had the origional voice actors of optamis prime and megatron, The new transforers movie was great and if you didnt like it you are a giant retard and so is the retard who wrote this piece of garbage article, thumbs down.

I personally do not see what is so great about G1. I never got into it when I was a kid, and it seems even worse now as an adult. Campy and childish. I'd love to have someone explain what's so fabulous about it. The only Transformers show I got into was Beast Wars and Beast Machines, and at the time I thought it was a good serial plot-driven story, with good characters and lots of different factions. At the time I also got into the pseudo-spiritual stuff, which in retrospect is pretty daring for a cartoon, though I'd have to watch it again to give a good modern opinion.

Good article dude. The problem with hollywood is that the original creators of the content is almost never involved or has any real control. I'm glad more people are starting to say no to hollyood if they don't like crappy ideas they come up with. I hear a few people have been trying to make another he-man movie.but hasbro has been telling them to get lost because the ideas were lame. Microsoft has been very involved in their halo property.

Just to clear things up a little bit, this was NOT suppose to be a Part I/Part II article. It started out that way in the beginning, but I decided against it. I should have been paying closer attention to what I was doing, because I copied and submitted the wrong file. What a great way to start my first writing experience on RetroJunk! Haha! Anyways, I had the whole finished article and was going to submit it again as the finished piece, but with so much info being released about the film as of late, I figured I'd take advantage of the situation and decided to rewrite what is now Part II. So, my apologies for being an idiot and submitting the wrong file, and I hope to have the "new" Part II finished very soon. I'm not a professional writer by any means, so I hope my mistake is a forgivable one, Haha, and I hope I haven't turned anyone off from reading the rest.

This movie's going to suck ass. The transformers (and I don't capitalize that word intentionally) aren't anything like they're supposed to be. Bumblebee is supposed to be a VW Bug. In the movie, he's a 2007/8 Camarro. And Optimus is supposed to be a squareboxed cab semi truck. In the movie, his cab is curved and sticks out. Nothing like the ubic cab that the cartoon had. Avoid at all costs.

I wish every article was as good this one, rather then reading the ramblings of a disgruntled youth lost (no offensive everyone, I'm sure would do the exact same thing).The only problem I have with it is that you ended the article as soon as you began the introduction, leaving a good 3/4s of the article unwritten. I'll have no choice but to look forward to the rest of your article .

I have to agree with "The Curator". Having watched the original transformers movie, it clearly was just meant to be an extenstion of advertising the merchandise. I mean, some moments would make you think otherwise, like the opening lines before the battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron. But the rest of the movie has the coherency of a 5 year old. But seeing as how the movie was clearly made for children, frankly I don't think that's such a bad thing.

It'll be interesting to see what Michael Bay comes out with, for my memories of the transformers were of these giants who crashed landed on earth, scurrying to hide themselves from their opposers as they struggled to exist within our world: very similar to the wild imagination of a child, as their parent would watch them play with these toys for hours on end, only the toys would be much, much smaller. Of course. I would hate to go into this movie only to be presented with an epic saga, that expands into three movie trilogy with more meaningless plot and dialogue. Because on paper, the idea of robots from outer space holding a "secret war" on earth, while taking on the disguise of automobiles and airplanes, is really something that would be great as a stand alone movie.

I don't know why people are so up in arms about Michael Bay directing "Transformers." This isn't Shakespeare; I want to see cars, trucks, jets and tanks transforming into robots and kicking the living gears out of each other. Big explosions and lots of action are Bay's specialty, and I predict this movie will be better than most people are saying it will be.

Will it be the top movie this summer? I don't think so, based on everything else "Transformers" has to compete against, but I think it will easily be in the top 10.

all im saying is that i think the old story will be better then whatever crappy plot they make for this new one. knowing micheal bay's style from his previous movies makes me feel like its going to be a dissapointment.

well written article. i look forward to part II. I dont look forward to the Transformers movie though, because its going to suck - guaranteed.I was a big transformers fan as a child, and i feel that if they just took the original story, and the original charictars and make them CG, they'd make the majority of fans happy. why change a good thing, just to make it updated and adapted to conventional standards? original fans are going to wince at the crap Micheal Bay spews out.

All I can say is the Transformers rocked as long as they had Optimus Prime. Once they booted him for that stupid hot rod guy it..... well, i guess it transformed into a trash can. I hope with this new movie coming out it will redeem itself. All the best to the Transformer movie peeps.

I grew up during all of the genres of Transformers, from G1-the Beast Generation, and on to RID, Armada, Energon, and Cybertron. I remain cautiously optimistic that this film will do well but without Frank Welker doing the Megatron voice, what the hell were the writers thinking when they hired Weaving, it may not appeal to the type of audience that the studio big whigs are looking for. In case anyone is wondering why I hadn't included G2 in my list of loved genres of Transformers it's because I really don't consider G2 to be a real Transformers genre.

I grew up during G2, but it was still G1, just repainted toys and the cartoon was narrowed down to a selection of episodes.

I laughed when you mention Murphy's Law because I have been keeping tabs on seibertron.com about this movie and one of the producers is Don Murphy, which is pretty ironic.

Anyhow, I have been a huge fan of G1 and I have seen the other series and I still call G1 the best toyline and the best cartoon series. Japan just can't go and do a good series on TF like us Americans even if they did invent the toys.

I will still see the Live Action Movie, it is an objective of a die hard TF Fan (I spent $300 on Masterpiece Megatron and Optimus Prime, I know I'm crazy XD) and I know that this movie discarded some beloved designs, but still, they got Peter Cullen who did the G1 Voice of Optimus Prime, sadly no Frank Welker for Megatron, but Hugo Weaving (Matrix, V for Vendetta) will do it, which I think was fine since Megatron is a disappointment for this film.

As long as Bay sticks to Autobots and Decepticons, duking it out and blowing up s#!+ I am sure this movie will do well, or at least blow Spider-Man 3 out of the #1 Box Office spot since that movie really was a disappointment.

Good call on post-G1 fans! It is true that there are an entire generation of kids whose entire concept of Transformers is wrapped with Armada and its sequels.

For instance, I once showed off my action figure collection to my wife's cousin and his young children. When I showed them my favorite transformer figure--a G1 Rodimus Prime--the 10 year old asked me, "Where are his mini-cons? Where do his mini-cons go?" I tried to explain to him that this Trasformer was older and didn't have mini-cons, but he was unconvinced. Indeed, that action figure was older than he was!

I think that we G1 fans need to remember that we don't "own" the Transformers franchise and should, therefore, understand that a TF movie should be accessible and enjoyable to all fans, no matter their age!

Yeah, even before they showed the pics, I knew they were going to re-do the way they looked. And what do we have now? A bunch of bug faced robots that look like walking junkyards. Pieces of gears & metalic garbage all hanging off of them. The only one that looks remotely the same is Prime. While Megatron looks like 100% pure shit.

With all do respect to the writer of this piece, thanks for posting and contributing to our little community here--your writing is good and your topic sweet. But I really feel you should have made this a complete piece before posting it. What you've written, while good, does little that a well-thought out introdution paragraph could have acomplished. Perhaps you were eager to see your post on the mighty retrojunk here, but, in that case, like Michael Bay, you have sacrificed content for action. Now, sure, I've done some part II's on this site myself, but they were reader-requested works after the first COMPLETE piece was posted. I never called anything part I.

I look forward to the second part of this article, but how about taking the time to make us the whole sandwhich, instead of just handing us the top slice of bread so you can have a little attention? This isn't post-one-chapter-at-a-time-fan-fic site after all.

Writers are a needy sort, myself included. We love--check that--crave feedback. But for that feedback, I feel an article writer should respect the reader with a complete work not a work in progess.

I am a die-hard G1 Transformers Fan. Although I have grown older I still have a soft spot and love for the original series. The later series I cannot give much devotion for but none-the-less I do love the Transformers. I fear that the feature length film being released this summer will be a flop. Although I would love to give a response to the comment above. Although we all remember Megatron as a black and silver luger he in fact originally was in a different form. I borrowed from the library out of curiosity several months ago the Transformers Encyclopedia. It told the exact writers history of the Transformers from day one up to several years ago (prior to the new movie coming to life). It stated that Megatron's original state on cybertron was a tank which is the form that Michael Bay is using. None-the-less I hope for the best and plan for the worst with this movie. There are too many differences between this and the original series.

i saw sites talk about the movie and i find the changes to the characters and backgrounds to be retarded.i watched g1 as you call it and i have the original trans movie.if movies are made from comics or cartoons they need to be left alone and not changed for the new generation

I have a problem with movies that are produced by people who are not fans of the franchise. This was the problem with comic book movies (except Superman) before Tim Burton made Batman. This is the same reason that movies based on video games are not very good (except Mortal Kombat 1). I hope Transformers is a good movie. People should stop putting down a movie until they see in theatres for themselves. To me despite the Transformer character designs I think the trailers are very impressive.

barflytke401, I hate to say it, but I seriously doubt that Transformers can stand up to the behemoths that are the Spider-Man and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises.

I'm not a huge Transformers fan myself, but that's probably because I only had minimal exposure to it as a kid. I really want to see the movie, but I don't have high hopes for it. There's not much in Hollywood to look forward to these days, as far as I'm concerned...

This film will be dangerous to do for Bay. But I think in the end, it will be a success, if it doesn't finish in the #1 summer film slot, it'll be a close #2 to the Potter. I expect it'll be okay, but it definitely won't hold the charm the original did from 1986. Oh well, win some, lose some.

I enjoyed this article quite a bit. I am one of the ones that leans more towards the G1 series, and for all of the reasons you pointed out. Still, I am looking forward to the movie, mainly because I'm a CGI buff and seeing huge transforming robots on screen that are not cartoons is facinating to me. I learned a long time ago to never compare the original idea to its "Hollywooized" counterpart. If you can go to a movie and enjoy it for what it is, instead of trying to see what they messed up or left out of the original story, then the number of dissapointments you slap $8.00 down to see will greatly decrease.